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How the Rape Culture Myth Hurts Everyone

I’m aware that I might need to rename myself the Invisible Anti-Feminist at this rate, but while I do want to write more about Atheism, I find that I am confronted with the hypocrisy of Feminism at an ever increasing rate on a daily basis these days, and disturbingly it’s often through major news outlets that this propaganda is being perpetuated.

So I find myself, once again, writing about modern feminism and its rather skewed world view, knowing full well that my views, however well reasoned, will be met with little to no attention by comparison to those of the ‘oppressed’ Feminist extremists we see every day, being endorsed and sponsored by major publications.

Let’s talk about rape, baby

We should probably get this out of the way early on in the discussion, the term ‘rape’ is currently under much scrutiny in itself. Feminists and their sponsors are increasingly piling on the pressure to have this term broadened to include sexual assault of almost any kind and with that in mind, we need to look at the current definition of the word, the Oxford dictionary online defines it thusly:

Now, before we continue the discussion, let’s take a second to avoid being trampled by the rather large elephant in the room. “typically committed by a Man” seems an unnecessary addition to a dictionary definition doesn’t it? Followed by two instances of examples featuring the word “he” to refer to the rapist. I’m in no way disputing that the act of rape is most often committed by Men, but this is pretty common knowledge and the fact that the Oxford dictionary feels the need to remind us of this is a little bit odd.

But I digress of course, the point of the example was purely to show that the term, at present and historically, refers to the physical act of rape via forced intercourse. An act which is wholly invasive and can be extremely traumatic dehumanising to the victim, often leaving them mentally scarred for life. Victims of this very serious crime should never have their experience lessened or cheapened by broadening this definition to include sexual assault which, in the UK at least, occurs when (according to the Metropolitan Police online) “they intentionally touch another person, the touching is sexual and the person does not consent”

Now, I think we can agree that this is a crime with quite a wide ranging definition. If someone touches the breast of another and didn’t get explicit consent to do so then this can very easily be considered sexual assault. It’s rather unlikely to leave the person scarred for life mentally though, I’m sure you’ll agree. By broadening the definition of rape to include sexual assault we are intentionally cheapening the very real experiences of actual victims of rape as well as purposely labeling many others as rapists, a very dangerous term to apply to any individual in a society where ‘rapists’ are, quite rightly, reviled and rejected almost universally. Which brings me to the ‘Rape Culture’ myth.

A culture of rape?

Now that we have successfully defined the word rape and explained why it must not be diluted by the inclusion of sexual assault, let’s examine the rape culture in which we in Western society apparently, and rather suddenly, find ourselves living. There’s not much point in beating about the bush here I think, the idea that we live in a rape culture is ludicrous and that is really all there is to it. In the West, we send people to prison for rape and in all areas of Western society rapists are reviled. The idea perpetuated by the permanently oppressed feminist lobbyists that we live in a culture where rape is considered the norm is a dangerous one though, and it’s as damaging to Women as it is to Men.

With ‘rape’ safely defined then, let’s take a second to also see how the Oxford dictionary defines a culture. Of course, this word means a few different things in English, however, I think that the two which best fit the idea of a rape culture are:

2.1[WITH MODIFIER] The attitudes and behaviour characteristic of a particular social group:the emerging drug culture,

From this definition we can see that a culture can cover a rather broad area, it relates to the behaviours and characteristics of social groups as well as the customs of a society. In our case of course, rape culture is said to be a problem in the west and is particularly spoken of in terms of the USA and UK. By definition then, in order to believe that rape culture is real we could need to subscribe to the idea that rape is something which is a defining part of our customs, is a large part of our every day behaviours and which is seen in a positive light (or at the very least, not seen as negative) within our attitudes.

We’ve already explained that rapists are imprisoned and reviled if found guilty here in the west, this would tend to suggest that rape isn’t a usual part of our customs and attitudes, in order to be a crime, something really must stand against a culture’s customs and attitudes in fact. There are countries where, if a woman is raped while married, she is considered an adulterer and shamed publicly, where the only way to rid yourself of this shame is to marry your rapist! This could, realistically be considered a rape culture. There are revered books where rape is considered acceptable if the rapist pays a small fine afterwards, this too, could realistically be considered part of a rape culture in places where such laws still exist.

How the rape culture myth hurts Women

For Women, the idea of a rape culture can, quite naturally, be a terrifying one. A quick Google search for “all Men are” will turn up “all men are rapists” as the number 2 hit, right behind the famous “all men are created equal” statement. This is because the theory behind rape culture is that all Men have a natural predisposition towards rape, that we, as a gender, find the idea appealing in some way and that, if we’re not repeatedly ‘taught’ otherwise, our natural rapist within will run rampant.

The rape culture myth purposely instills this fear into Women and Girls by telling them that they are helpless, child-like potential victims who must live in perpetual fear of the Men in their lives, which naturally helps to disempower females. The whole idea is that our very culture is geared towards rape and that in itself is a frightening prospect for the females who buy into the propaganda. Of course this will also affect any potential relationships with Men, even extending to their own family members, for those affected.

How the rape culture myth hurts Men

For Men, the idea of living in a rape culture can also be very damaging. One area which seems to be perhaps the most saturated with this myth is the University campus, where males are already outnumbered by females. Places of education should be completely neutral and free of sexism, but when we see males (only) forced to take classes on how to not rape someone, white males discouraged from attending supposed diversity events (and the hateful woman who did so remaining employed as a diversity officer) and women having ‘safe spaces’ within such establishments, we must ask why our education system has become such a toxic environment to men. Again we are confronted with the spectre of rape culture. The idea that men must be taught not to rape is ludicrous in a society which already reviles and imprisons rapists. Do we really think that rapists attend these events and suddenly realise that it’s not ok after all?

On the subject of these classes, what they are telling our Children, our future business and world leaders is that Men have some ‘natural urge to rape’, so much so that we must take lessons in how to repress our natural desires and keep our ‘inner rapist’ at bay. Naturally, telling children and young adults that they are potentially dangerous sex offenders can have obvious negative effects which, to be frank, I really shouldn’t need to explain.

Rape culture is a very dangerous thing to teach our future generations. If we are telling our sons that rape is simply something which is inherent within them, that it’s something in their nature which they must suppress and that it’s simply a part of our cultures and traditions here in the west, we’re essentially giving them the green light to give in to these ‘natural urges’. We’re purposely trivialising a brutal and horrific act as something which is just part of our culture, “oh, I can’t really help it, it’s part of my culture”.

All we’re really asking for is a little common sense. Men and Women are two halves of a whole, we make up a diverse and incredible species which gets a bad press, but which needs each other to survive. Demonising, segregating and mistrusting Men will only serve to push future generations further apart and ignoring societies and cultures where rape culture is real, or trivialising the plight of women in such cultures by comparing our contrasting ideas about rape and rapists is simply not acceptable.

We are not rape apologists, we are not victim blamers, we simply do not subscribe to the idea that a society which does not tolerate rape should be considered a rape culture.